Will digital advice eventually become the norm in the financial services industry? Mark Fordree (CEO of Ignition Wealth) suggests that it will be, stating that by 2017, digital financial advice will be heavily adopted throughout the financial services industry.

“In 2017 digital financial advice will become a mainstream solution, provided as a core offering by professional financial businesses.”

Fordree added that digital financial advice could follow the trend of the ATM, which progressed from being a novelty service to one that had become an essential service of everyday life.

“Digital financial advice will become an assumed offering for all good operators. By the close of 2017 good financial businesses which do not have a digital advice component will be the exception rather than the rule,” Fordree said.

Ignition Wealth investor and mentor, and Count Financial founder, Barry Lambert, said financial planning, which was labour intensive, was due for a business makeover by integrating digital financial advice.

“Digitalised servicing of the 80 per cent of clients that represent only 20 per cent of profits is the obvious first step. The percentage of clients serviced by digital financial advice will soon become the industry benchmark and you will never have to refund fees due to non-service,” Lambert said.

“Everyone is talking about the cloud revolution and many are looking to change their technology because they want to look smarter. Changing technology is very expensive if it does not revolutionise your business.”